Bopanna, Mirnyi storm into Petersburg final (Lead)

St. Petersburg, Oct 25 (IANS) India’s Rohan Bopanna and his Belarusian partner Max Mirnyi continued their brilliant run to enter the doubles final of the St Petersburg Open, sweeping past Mikhail Mertinak of Slovakia and Croatian Lovro Zovko in straight sets.The unseeded Bopanna and Mirnyi, pairing up for the first time, beat Mertinak and Zovko 7-5, 6-2 to set up a clash with Travis Parott of the US and Filip Polasek of Slovakia.

Bopanna and Mirnyi have been in a fine form in the tournament and knocked off local favourite Igor Kunitsyn and Marat Safin in the semifinal. They saved three match points to carve out a 6-4, 3-6, 13-11 win.